Eleven students from across the country have spent the last six months, five days a week for eight hours a day in Kalamazoo, Michigan, at the nation’s leading training program for wind-turbine technicians. On June 16, the 10 men and one woman walked the stage at Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Groves Center as graduates of the intensive training program.
The competency-based Wind Turbine Technician Academy provides a fast track to jobs that are in demand and pay high wages. Kalamazoo Valley offers the course as a non-credit, full-time program allowing students the chance to be job-ready in less than six months. Focused on specific, hands-on competencies, the training model moves students from the classroom to the learning labs and into the field quickly.
Graduates include:
- Shelby Beeghly of Newport, Rhode Island.
- Pierre Camp of Novato, California.
- Ram Dealy of Middletown, Connecticut.
- Reily Janson of Boulder, Colorado.
- Oleksandr Karatsyuba of Elkhart, Indiana.
- Chris McCollough of Titusville, New Jersey.
- Nick Norton of Battle Creek, Michigan.
- Nick Ruby of Scottville, Michigan.
- Brian Seklecki of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Robert Strong of Hopkins, Minnesota.
- Tanner Swartz of Plymouth, Indiana.
The program requires graduates to achieve 100 percent success in meeting industry standards in core areas of qualification. The graduates must successfully complete written assessments, practical examinations in the lab, and demonstrate their capabilities in the field.
More than 96 percent of Wind Turbine Technician Academy alumni work in the wind industry, with the majority accepting offers for employment prior to graduation. The Academy is offered twice a year, in January and July.
Source: Kalamazoo Valley Groves Center
For more information, go to www.kvcc.edu/wind
